


Seven in a gay bar

by Nalle



Category: Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Canon Queer Character, F/F, Gay Bar, Queer Character, Queer Themes, Sexual Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:08:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nalle/pseuds/Nalle
Summary: Seven's Fenris Ranger friend Leila takes her to a gay bar on a nearby planet. She feels awkward at first, but relaxes when she realizes how much fun it is to check out other women.
Relationships: Bjayzl/Seven of Nine
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Seven in a gay bar

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first fanfic ever, so be gentle with me! It's a lot of reflection and not much action, but I had so much fun writing this. I just had to do it. I really wanted to see Seven in a gay bar because judged by how much heterosexuality is still the norm in Starfleet, gay bars obviously must still exist. I also liked working out Seven's continued neurodivergence: she's masking a lot more than she used to, but her mind is still different. So stoked to know what y'all think!  
> Oh, and English is not my mother tongue, probably good to know.

Once again, it seemed like everyone knew what to do, how to behave except for her. Seven stood with her back against the wall in the small, dark bar, her hands quasi-nonchalant in the pockets of her leather jacket. Leila was deep in conversation with a pretty girl, sweeping her long braids back, looking over her shoulder just long enough to wink at Seven. Seven stared blankly back, not knowing how to behave. Her breath high in her chest, she tried to relax by sighing, but she couldn’t shake her awkwardness off.

Back on Voyager she was still as socially inept as to constantly ask for guidance on social code. Shame crept upon her thinking back to those days. She still felt so unequivocally different from everyone around her. It was better at Fenris. Somehow, the Rangers seemed to attract all kinds of outcasts and weirdos, people who weren’t as stuck up on behaving ‘normally’ as to betray their principals. People who knew how to set their priorities straight. Still, she felt awkward thinking back to those days when she didn’t yet know how to behave ‘normally’ herself. The mechanical Borg-like way of speaking she used to have back then, the way she nowadays still caught herself thinking when she didn’t have enough energy.

Yes, that was the big difference between now and back when she was still on Voyager – back then, she didn’t know better than to be her cyborg self, didn’t care about masking those non-human parts of her. Now, she kept longing to move through the world smoothly, to not be hyperaware of her every single move. People who knew her back then kept commenting on how loose and natural she behaved nowadays. If only they knew how much energy it cost her.

She sighed again and decided it was time for a drink. Careful not to touch anyone she walked the few meters to the bar and decided that sitting on a bar stool was probably the appropriate thing to do. A pretty girl with an asymmetrical haircut leaned towards her expectantly, eyebrows raised.

“Bourbon please”. She had started to enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling that real alcohol gave her. It made her slightly less hypervigilant.

“I’ve never seen you here before”, the bartender concluded while pouring the gold liquid into a glass filled to the brim with ice. Too much ice. Too little liquid.

“I’m not from here.”

The girl looked up and seemed to study her. She was checking her out, Seven suddenly realized. Somehow, the concept of checking someone out acquired a whole new meaning. When men looked at her like this it always made her feel on guard. But this girl’s eyes somehow made her feel warm inside. It suddenly occurred to her that she could do the same. She was allowed to. This was a place for checking girls out. She was allowed to have fun. Fun, a concept that had took her a long time to grasp, but somehow, in these surroundings, it suddenly made sense.

She turned a bit on her seat, cool glass in hand, studying the room. So many women, some dancing, some standing like she did just a few minutes ago, hands in their pockets. In a corner, two women were making out. She stared at them, surprised at what it did to her to watch the scene. How come she never saw this before?

Back at Voyager she had always thought that she was supposed to end up with someone of the masculine gender. She actually chose Chakotay for instrumental reasons, the way she thought everyone did it – choosing someone with the highest rank, who seems trustworthy and knowledgeable. It’s strange how she didn’t connect the way she so often felt in her body when looking at some pretty female staff member with the way people described the feelings that led to human sexual bonding. But then again, they all just made it seem as if bonding only occurred between people of different sexes. It had made her go back into her memory and reinterpret so many moments of her post-borg life. The intensity of her feelings for captain Janeway, for example.

Humans always thought they were so enlightened and modern, but being queer was obviously still not the norm in Starfleet. They all acted as if they did not think anything of it when somebody turned out to be in a same-sex relationship, but still – it came across as hypocritical to Seven. Take just the fact that nobody told her this was possible and that she never actually saw a same-sex couple on board of Voyager. It was one of the many flaws in human nature that she couldn’t help noticing. How inefficient to have to go to a special bar to meet these needs of her, when people could just as well be open about their sexual preferences so that it would be easier to find somebody to date at work, or on a ship? She once again rejoiced at her choice for Fenris, the place where she met Leila.

Leila walked up to her. “Sorry for that. I should have introduced you, but I’d rather not introduce you to this one to be honest. She’s so much drama.”

“What’s her name?”

“It's a really weird name actually. Bjayzl. But seriously. Stay away from that girl.”


End file.
